The other night (Feb. 20) Sac State held its fourth “D3” event showcasing the research projects in which the faculty from the colleges of Engineering and Computer Sciences and of Natural Sciences and Mathematics are engaged.  There were more than 75 exhibits and 200+ attendees. This was the best attended of these events to date as word has spread about how good they are. Thanks to all of you who took the time to come join us. You probably were as intrigued as we were with the work these professors are doing.  For those who missed it, watch for it again next year. It is really worthwhile.

We spent time with Professors Farshid Zabihian, Tracy Toups, Tim Marbach, Aki Kumagai, Mahyar Zarghami, and Atousa Yazdani hearing about their latest work.  Farshid has upgraded the biodigester he has been perfecting for years, with some additions of new equipment. Tracy has been looking at ways to offset some of the distortions multiple home EV chargers would put on local distribution systems and wants to do some local demos.  Tim is looking at appliance efficiency. Aki has developed a water Pasteurization device powered by the sun for use in African countries. Mahyar is devising ways to integrate more renewables into the power system by controlling sophisticated voltage source converters. And Atousa and her colleagues had some new work on flywheel energy storage.  Last year she showed her work on piezoelectric devices to harvest electrical energy.

Congratulations to Associate Dean Kevan Shafizadeh who spearheaded the event this year.  We are hoping many of these projects lead to products that come to market. Clearly, not just the faculty, but the students working with these faculty are getting a good start on innovations that can advance clean technologies.